Consumer confidence in banking falls
October 25, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
According to a recent survey the levels of consumer confidence in banking have fallen recently, and experts state that much of this reduction in confidence has been fuelled by the recent turmoil and chaos faced by Northern Rock.
The survey was carried out by Teamspirit, and showed that levels of confidence in banking and the finance industry as a whole have taken a real knock over recent weeks, affecting many sectors of the finance and banking industry.
Almost 2500 people were polled as part of the survey, and the results showed that only 46% of consumers now had trust in high street banks. A slightly higher number of consumers expressed confidence in building societies, with 48% stating that they trusted building societies. Online banking also took a hit, with just 25% of consumers stating that they trusted inline banking – experts state that this could be partly due to severe problems that Northern Rock customers experienced over the past couple of weeks.
One official that was involved in the survey stated that the whole Northern Rock situation had resulted in a damaging effect in terms of consumer confidence in finance and financial institutions.
She said: “The Northern Rock situation has contributed to the low levels of trust that the British public has in companies that look after their money.”
Another factor that has also affected levels of consumer confidence according to many experts is the turmoil that has hit the financial markets over the past month, which was sparked by the credit crunch in the United States. This has had global repercussions, affecting many areas of the financial sector in the UK as well as in other countries.
Tom Smith
25th October 2007
Popularity of Internet banking results in bank closures
September 21, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
The UK has seen a massive rise in the popularity of Internet banking over recent years. Although there have been concerns about security and the risk of banking fraud, the rise in the number of people using Internet banking these days has reflected consumer confidence in this type of service.
Consumers are able to conduct transactions from the comfort of their own home at any time of the day or night, and can do anything from transfer money or make a one off payment to set up direct debits or simply view statements.
However, although Internet banking is both convenient and simple, it is not all good news. It seems that the huge popularity of Internet banking is now taking its toll on high street banking, and as a result of this some high street branches are going to have to close due to lack of business. The C&G has recently announced that as a result of so many people using Internet banking it will have to close a number of its branches across the UK.
C&G officials have announced that thirty one branches across the UK will be closing, which will mean job losses in excess of 315. There are 195 C&G branches in the UK in total, and the company is a part of the Lloyds TSB group. One spokesman stated that there were fewer people using the branches that were to be closed, and much of this had been put down to the popularity of Internet banking.
He stated: “Closing branches is never a decision that we take lightly. But with more customers taking advantage of technology, the number of customers coming through the doors in these particular branches has fallen. By closing these branches where customer use has dropped, we can invest in the branches that customers do use.”
Tom Smith
21st September 2007
